Book Reviews: Harry Potter - Part 2

Continuing with my review of the books I read in 2016 (I promise I will try to wrap these up soon and do better with 2017's reads!!), here is part 2 of the Harry Potter series (read my Part 1 review here), covering the last 4 books. Be warned that there may be spoilers! (The images below are borrowed from Google Images, and these are the versions which I own and read. Someday I hope I'll be able to complete the series with the new covers!)

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Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire

In this book we experience the first death in the series. Not a beloved character we've known from the beginning (thankfully), but a shocking (and perhaps unnecessary?) death all the same. Now in their 4th year at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that Hogwarts will be hosting the Tri-Wizard Tournament (this after attending a Quidditch championship game over the summer), which had not taken place in some 200+ years because there had been too many deaths. It is a contest between the 3 main European wizarding schools: Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons (so we are introduced to these 2 other schools and their headmasters), and is composed of three tasks, each more dangerous than the one before. In an effort to keep it safer, Dumbledore ruled that only those aged 17+ could enter their name into the Goblet of Fire, which chooses one candidate from each school. Harry's name is mysteriously entered into the cup and he is chosen as a 4th candidate, despite being underage and there already being a Hogwarts contestant, Cedric Diggory. Unfortunately, once the Goblet chooses a name, the contestant must compete, so there is nothing that anyone can do about it. Harry is scorned by the whole school (even Ron) as they all assume he somehow managed to enter his own name into the Goblet. After succeeding in every task, while facing near-death, Harry becomes a hero among his peers once more. In the final task, a maze with the Triwizard Cup in the centre (the first contestant to touch it being the winner). Cedric and Harry both touch the cup at the same time, with unexpected and tragic results.

I was terribly disappointed with this movie. There was just so much missing or changed from the book. Perhaps I watched it too soon (literally a day or 2) after finishing the book, but I felt totally cheated.

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Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

I found this book pretty long. I enjoyed the read, and it wasn't lacking in adventure or excitement. But I found Harry's attitude and mood-swings (while understandable and justifiable in the end) to be extremely annoying. Professor Umbridge is vile and I hated her! I especially hate that she gives fuzzy pink clothes, doilies, and kittens a bad reputation! This book also features an emotional death.

So in this 5th book of the series, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn about The Order of the Phoenix which is an underground group of wizards who fought Voldemort's Death Eaters the first time, and who are now preparing for Voldemort's return, and protecting Harry. When the trio return to Hogwarts, they meet their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to be a Ministry employee called Dolores Umbridge. She's a very unimposing-looking woman, dressed in pink, but she is the Ministry's poster-woman, and the very essence of evil. By having a woman on the inside, the Ministry now has "control" of Hogwarts, and Defense Against the Dark Arts becomes "no defense" as the Ministry only wants the students to be taught theory, "No wands!" Professor Umbridge imposes hundreds of rules to try to keep the students under control, but Harry and his friends form their own underground group. They meet in the Room of Requirement, call themselves Dumbledore's Army, and Harry is their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. A portion of Dumbledore's Army find themselves eventually find themselves sneaking in to the Ministry of Magic on a mission to save Sirius Black, and Harry finds a prophesy about him and Voldemort.

Again, this movie was missing so much from the book, it just felt like I was being cheated. I will have to watch it again someday, maybe when the books aren't so fresh in my mind, the movies will be better...

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Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince

I could barely even handle the major murder at the end of this book (Dumbledore by Snape). I was shocked and angry and could not for the life of me figure out why J.K. Rowling would do such a thing!

The biggest plot point in this book is that, now in their 6th year at Hogwarts, Harry comes into possession of an old copy of their Potions book, completely scribbled through with spells and potions, and inscribed as belonging to the "Half-Blood Prince." Harry also has private lessons with Dumbledore, during which Dumbledore shares with Harry about Voldemort's past: who his parents were, how Dumbledore met him, and how he became the vile creature he is at present. Harry also learns about Horcruxes (a thing which possesses a part of a person's soul), and that Dumbledore believes Voldemort has 7, and 2 have already been destroyed, but they don't know what the rest may be, nor where they may be located. Dumbledore promises Harry that when he learns of the location of another Horcrux, he will bring Harry with him to find and destroy it. They do find one, but at a terrible price, and in the end, it is a fake. Dumbledore leaves Harry, Ron, and Hermione with the mission of finding & destroying the remaining Horcruxes. At the end of the book, Harry resolves to not return to Hogwarts the next year as he has a mission to fulfill.

Strike three with the movies. I think this one was marginally better than the previous two, but there were just annoying little changes, and always with the missing parts, and I just... *sigh*

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Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

Wow. That's pretty much all I can say to sum up this book, and the series as a whole. I'm so sad that it's over, and yet so much has happened, that I'm kind of happy to just let the characters be - they've been through so much! I thought my heart had broken at the end of The Half-Blood Prince, but as awful as that was, it was nothing in comparison to all the losses and deaths and revelations in this final book.

So, as we knew from the ending of The Half-Blood Prince, Harry, Ron, and Hermione do not return to Hogwarts for their 7th year, instead setting off to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, which Dumbledore entrusted them with. The Order tries to help and protect them, but Harry and his friends insist that Dumbledore left them with the mission, and no-one else is to know about it. Right away in the first few chapters there are more deaths, one in particular that really made me mad, and injuries. It is at this point that Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off on their own on their secret mission. The wizarding world is in an uproar as Voldemort and his Death Eaters are in control of the Ministry and have infiltrated Hogwarts, so they have to take great measures to hide from everyone. They do find and destroy Horcruxes, and along the way also learn about the Hallows: 3 magical items that, when possessed by one person, make that person the strongest wizard and conqueror of death. Our friends get separated, caught, tortured, etc., escape again... The story climaxes when they return to Hogwarts to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters in an epic battle of good vs. evil.

I haven't watched these movies yet. I thought I owned all of the movies, so I was really excited to have a little marathon last weekend after I finished the last book. But, come to find out, I only have The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. So, I am on the lookout for Part 1 for cheap, but if it takes too much longer I may have to break down and rent it and wait for someone to give it to me for birthday/Christmas. :)

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So... that's the end of it, then. As I said in Part 1 of my reviews, I wouldn't have appreciated or enjoyed them at all as a kid when these books first came out, so I'm really glad I finally got around the reading these books because I've really enjoyed the journey. And I would highly recommend them to older children or teenagers who like fantasy, magic, and bravery. I am so excited that my younger nephew also started reading the books this year. I'm hoping that once he gets a little older and a little further into the series he'll want to geek out with me. :)

Book Reviews: Harry Potter - Part 1

So my plan to review the books I read before reviving my blog before reviewing the books I've read since... it's not working out. But here goes a continuation...

I believe I've mentioned it already, but I started reading the Harry Potter series this year, for the first time. It's magical and beautiful and exciting, and I love it. I sort of regret not reading them as a kid and getting into it from the start... But had I tried to read them, I know I wouldn't have liked them - I just wasn't really into that kind of story at that point in my life.

Anyway, because I'm running behind on the reviews, I've decided to review the books together in a two-part post. I haven't finished the series yet, so I won't be posting part two for a while.

Also, I'll try not to give too much away, but seeing as I'm reviewing the whole series, there may be spoilers - fair warning!

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Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone
This is where the magic begins. Harry Potter, a mistreated, orphaned boy, discovers on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard and gets swept off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets his best friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Rubeus Hagrid, and learns all about this hidden world he's never known anything about. He also learns about his past, and Voldemort, the dark wizard who was responsible for the deaths of his parents, as well as the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. In this first adventure, Harry single-handedly saves the Philosopher's Stone (which has the capacity to grant the owner/user immortality) from Voldemort.

I had seen the movie years ago and thought it was cute. I recently acquired my own copy, which I watched again after reading the book, and it was even better than I had remembered. It is a really great interpretation of the book.

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Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets
In this second adventure, Harry and Ron are astonished to discover they've somehow missed the Hogwarts Train, and so they steal Mr. Weasley's charmed Ford Anglia, which they end up crashing into the Whomping Willow. Strange things continue to happen... mysterious, cryptic words begin appearing on walls of the school (messages about the "Heir of Slytherin" and the "Chamber of ecrets"), and people are being found "petrified." There is, of course, suspicion that Harry might be the Heir when it is discovered that he is a parsel-tongue (one who is able to communicate with snakes), and there is fear that the school may have to be closed for the safety of the students. Harry and his friends investigate the attacks, which leads to Harry finding the Chamber of Secrets in order to save Ginny Weasley (Ron's younger sister) from a basilisk.

I waited to watch this movie until after I had read the book. As with the first movie, I found it entertaining and to be another fairly good interpretation of the book.

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Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
At the beginning of Harry's third year at Hogwarts, we find out that the wizard Sirius Black (believed to be one of Voldemort's followers, a mass-murderer, and responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents) has escaped from the high security magical prison called Azkaban, and everyone believes he is coming after Harry Potter. Dementors (the dark creatures who guard Azkaban) follow the Hogwarts Express and surround the school, terrifying students in their search for Black. But no-one is more affected by the Dementors than Harry, causing the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (Remus Lupin) to help him learn how to defend himself against them by mastering a very advanced charm. Black does find Harry, but he's not what Harry was expecting.

This movie was also pretty great. I found that it remained pretty true to the book.

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You can find Part 2 here, where I review the last 4 books of the series. Thanks for reading!

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns
I'm one of those people. Those people who have to read the book before they can watch the movie. I mean, maybe not every time. There are certainly movies I watched before reading the book, for one reason or another; either I wasn't aware that there was a book, or the opportunity to watch the movie came first, or I frankly, didn't care. This was one of those books that I read because I wanted to watch the movie, and already had (but had not yet read) the book. It's a YA fiction by John Green, a huge player in the YA world right now, after the wildly successful movie adaptation of his book The Fault in Our Stars (which I loved, both the book and the movie).

Paper Towns is a story about two teenage neighbours, Quentin and Margo. They were friends in childhood, but then life happened. She became one of the cool kids, and he didn't, but he's been keeping an eye on her and crushing hard all this time. Then one night, Margo knocks on his window needing help. They spend an amusing and adventurous night getting into trouble, exacting revenge on her enemies, and he is happy to think that she suddenly wants to be friends again. She, however, disappears the very next day. Everyone else just chocks it up to her acting out again. "She'll be back in a few days," they say. But Q is worried about her and does everything in his power to decrypt and put together the clues she left behind in order to find her.

I found that the plot was slow to develop in several areas. There were some suspenseful parts where you began to wonder what was really happening and whether Margo was really ok or not... But the ending was rather disappointing and unsatisfying. It's an OK read, I didn't hate it. As for the movie... just don't even waste your time with that one, in my opinion!

Book Review: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Ok, first off, I LOVED this book, AND movie. I saw the movie first, which I would almost recommend because you enjoy the movie, but then the book is that much better because it's got different stuff and more info. And I really don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I will really try to give the most basic of descriptions...

So, the story is about this group of 9 children from planet Lorien (who look like humans, but definitely are not) who were sent to Earth 10 years ago, each with their Cepan guardian, when Lorien was attacked by the Mogadorians (aliens from a different planet). The plan was that they would go to their space station to wait until it was safe to return, but the Mogadorians destroyed the planet and everything on it, so they were forced to come to Earth. Before they left, each child was given a number, and a charm was put on them so that should the Mogadorians ever find them, they had to be killed in numerical order. The only way the charm could be broken was if 2 or more of them were together, so they had to spread out and never make contact. And each time one is killed, no matter where they are, the others know because they painfully receive a circular scar on their leg. The first 2 have died years ago, and you see the third die right at the beginning of both book and movie. The main character is Number Four, so he and his Cepan (and father figure), Henri, know that he is next and that they must keep moving, keep changing identities. They've never stayed anywhere for more than 6 months. So after Number Three dies, they move to Paradise, Ohio, and Number Four takes on the new identity of John Smith.

Paradise, Ohio is where everything changes for Number Four (John). He starts to develop his Lorien Legacies - super powers - he meets and falls in love with Sarah Hart, he makes a best friend in Sam Goode (whose father was an alien enthusiast who disappeared years ago), an initial enemy in Mark James (police chief's son, football star, and Sarah's ex-boyfriend), and a pet Beagle who he names Bernie Kosar. Mark is pretty mean to John at first, but not so much after John throws him and his friends around in the woods one night. John eventually has to tell all 3 of them his secret, which is extremely dangerous, but turns out to be helpful when the Mogadorians finally find them.

But with the Mogadorians also comes Number Six, who is a great help, but also opens all the other Loric children up to be killed if the Mogadorians find them. Together they are stronger, but for the ones who aren't with them, it could be fatal. Four and Six's powers are different in the book from the movie, so I won't say what they are. The (intense) battle scene at the High School is also different, so I won't go into much detail there either, at this point. But the ending is the same - Four and Six defeat the Mogadorians. I also wouldn't want to completely spoil the ending for those who haven't seen/read it yet, but Four and Six do have to leave Paradise in the end.

Now for the author. Pittacus Lore, what a strange name, and so close to the name of the planet, you might say. Cool, you might say. Well, Pittacus Lore is the authors' (James Frey and Jobie Hughes) pseudonym, and also a character in the book. He is not mentioned in the movie, and only once in the book. But the back of the flyleaf reads:

"Pittacus Lore is Lorien's ruling Elder. He has been on Earth for the last twelve years, preparing for the war that will decide Earth's fate. His whereabouts are unknown."

I like it. Can't wait for the second book of the series - The Power of Six!!!

Overall story rating: 10/10
Recommendation: 13+